By Andrew L. Jaffee

The leading Democratic White House hopefuls conceded Wednesday night they cannot guarantee to pull all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the end of the next presidential term in 2013. …

- CNN, 9/27/07

This is the saving grace of American politics: the overwhelming power of the center; the adaptability of a naturally self-correcting system. If this were not the case, then certainly the top Democrats debating last night in New Hampshire would have continued to cater to their far-left constituency, and demanded the immediate pull-out of American troops from Iraq. No doubt we’ll here cries from the loony-left about how they’ve been “betrayed.” Here are the top Democratic contenders in their own words:

… “I think it’s hard to project four years from now,” said Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois in the opening moments of a campaign debate in the nation’s first primary state.

“It is very difficult to know what we’re going to be inheriting,” added Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

“I cannot make that commitment,” said former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.

Sensing an opening, Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson provided the assurances the others would not.

“I’ll get the job done,” said Dodd, while Richardson said he would make sure the troops were home by the end of his first year in office. …

Getting the troops home “by the end of his first year in office” is a far cry from an immediate withdrawal. Even these Democrats know how important Iraq’s stability is to the American people.

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Related: Iraq, Elections

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